Nomenclature of the Absolute

by Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura

Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu

Shri Krishna Chaitanya, though He came more than four hundred years ago, is present among us when His Words are explained anywhere in this world. His message has little connection with our ordinary ideas. It is something supernatural. It refers to 'transcendence'. There are occasions when many of us also can peep into transcendence, but most of our messages get contaminated with ideas of a worldly nature. Shri Krishna Chaitanya had no ambition to speak anything that would facilitate sensuous activities. Ordinary religionists speak much about things which we grasp by our senses. But Shri Krishna Chaitanya has spoken to us some transcendental words which, although they have affinity to ordinary ideas and things should not be applied to what we find on the mundane plane.

It is necessary first of all to know His standpoint. He spoke on devotional lines. Devotion is not a mental exploitation in which the words which are used take us to a region which is beyond our sensuous scope. But we can see things in that line of devotion only when its language is an adaptation of what we use in connection with what we meet with in this world. On that score we should not equate the words meant for transcendence with the same category meant for mundane things.

Often people try so hard to find happiness through sense pleasure that they may attempt to gratify several or all of their senses at the same time. For example, you may simultaneously be watching TV, listening to the radio, munching potato chips, sipping beer, and smoking a cigarette. Perhaps you may have your arm around the shoulders of your girlfriend or boyfriend. You may also have a magazine at your side, which you look at during commercials. You try to fill up every sense; yet still you're not satisfied; still you want something more.
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In the first place He has not departed from the ideas and hymns of the Vedas, the Shrutis and the Upanishads. He had no ambition to talk anything not supported by the revealed Scriptures. He said that the Transcendental Sound has to come in order to regulate the senses which at present are merely working to get some fruit for us through our actions; but whatever results may come out of our outward acts will be only for our individual purposes; our friends are not profited thereby. So some zealous activities are found among our friends which are concerned with fruitive results. The Transcendental Sound regulates the senses which are always troubling us to secure some riches for ourselves which are not shared by others, and so we have to expect some hostility from friends and foes as well. But He says that the Transcendental Sound Will bring Love, an amplitude of love, uniting us with the Absolute. Though We are likely to be unsteady we should not allow ourselves to be disturbed by sense-satisfying performances. He says that love is the principal subject to be roused up, that love which now lies within us in a dormant condition. We are attracted and deluded by outer features of things which tempt us in a greater or lesser degree and captivate our senses. Such things though appearing enjoyable at the moment seem to trouble us in the long run. What we recognize is perfect peace and real severance from painful sensation. Our predilection is always for what is pleasing to our senses. There are deluding aspects which often hide from us the sight of the inner face. We should be cautious not to accept what is presented by the senses. The senses require regulation. Everything is shifting. We can trace nothing here that is permanent in the world. Time changes everything. The Absolute never changes. This should be realized.